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Truly amazing ~ in the most negative way imaginable ~ Sooz
Senate Republicans seem to have one answer for Democrats: No
By Dana Milbank
Friday, January 29, 2010
In his State of the Union address Wednesday night, President Obama asked lawmakers to "work through our differences, to overcome the numbing weight of our politics."
On Thursday, Republicans sent their answer.
The Senate took a vote on extending the federal debt ceiling -- without which the United States would go into default. All 40 Republicans voted no.
The Senate took a vote on requiring Congress not to pass legislation that it can't pay for. All 40 Republicans voted no.
The Senate took a final vote on passing the overall plan. Thirty-nine Republicans voted no. The 40th, Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), skipped the vote.
The state of the union is . . . unchanged.
The afternoon was consumed by a debate about whether to confirm Ben Bernanke for a second term as Fed chairman. Four years ago, when President George W. Bush nominated his former economic adviser to the Fed, the Senate confirmed him by a voice vote and only one Republican expressed opposition. This time around, President Obama nominated Bernanke to a second term. To thank Obama for this bipartisan gesture, 18 of the chamber's Republicans voted no.
In all of these instances, Republicans knew that failure was not an option; voting down the debt increase or rejecting Bernanke would send markets into chaos. But they also recognized that these were free votes for the minority, because Democrats, in the majority, would "own" any failure.
Before the debt-ceiling vote, Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, warned that a default by the Treasury would have a "cataclysmic result in the financial markets."
Sen. Judd Gregg (N.H.), the top Republican on budget matters, rose in opposition. "It is not responsible to raise the debt ceiling in this manner if you're not going to put in place any responsible activity to bring under control the rising debt."
Not going to put in place any responsible activity to bring under control the rising debt? The Senate voted Tuesday on just such an activity, a debt commission whose recommendations would get an up-or-down vote in Congress. Gregg joined Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) in introducing the bill, and Obama endorsed it. But a majority of Gregg's GOP caucus opposed the panel.
Baucus, the Democratic floor leader, realized he was wasting his breath. "I think we all know where we are," he said before one of Thursday's votes, declining the time he had been given to speak.
The Congressional Record will show that Democrats prevailed in the vote, but the enthusiasm on the floor was the other way around. There was no celebrating among party members, no congratulatory handshakes.
The 92-year-old Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), needed in the chamber to overcome the Republican opposition, voted from his wheelchair and rubbed his forehead. Across the aisle, Sen. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), a GOP leader, belted out a "no!" and then chuckled.
It was time for the long-delayed confirmation vote on Bernanke. Sen. Jon Kyl (Ariz.) reasoned to his fellow Republicans that "any other nominee chosen by Obama would likely be less independent" than the former Bush aide.
But his colleagues didn't see it that way. Sen. Richard Shelby (Ala.), leading the debate for the GOP, said the Fed chairman had "fiddled while our markets burned." Sen. Jim Bunning (Ky.), who noted with pride that he was "the only senator to vote against him" four years ago, determined that "a vote for Ben Bernanke is a vote for bailouts."
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (Tex.) said Bernanke's actions "set a very dangerous precedent," while Sen. Jim DeMint (S.C.) said Bernanke's confirmation would doom "our fellow Americans to high unemployment," and Sen. Jeff Sessions (Ala.) found Bernanke lacking in "gravitas."
The Fed chief, said Sen. Sam Brownback (Kan.), took care of "what Wall Street needs," rather than "what Main Street needs."
Many Democrats shared that populist sentiment, of course, and knew that a vote to confirm Bernanke could be politically perilous in the current economic misery. But they also knew that their party would be blamed if Bernanke was rejected and markets tanked.
In the end, the Democratic side voted 48 to 12 for the Fed chief. Republicans split, 22 to 18. That was the most opposition a Fed chairman had ever faced. But by the current standard, getting 22 GOP votes for anything -- even for a former economic adviser to a Republican White House -- amounts to a bipartisan triumph.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 03729.html
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